Category Archives: Michael F

Hope everyone enjoyed Halloween; on the other hand, I can’t think of anything scarier than…Donald Trump is president of the United States.

November 6th won’t change that, but it could serve as quite the wake up call or expression of buyer’s remorse (well…considering he was elected but didn’t actually win, an expression of actual intent).

Last night was yet another ugly, vile display…and I still shudder to think what could happen if/when there’s a genuine crisis on Trump’s watch (note: not that Puerto Rico and Florida aren’t, but I mean something like a national or international economic shock, or, heaven forbid, terrorist act, etc.).

In Trump’s case, though, the flouting of the truth serves a particular purpose: it is always a declaration not of any moral or legal or philosophical principle, but of power. As Masha Gessen once noted in The New York Review of Books, authoritarians in the mold of Trump or Vladimir Putin do not lie or distort to truly convince the listener that what they are saying is true. They seek to demonstrate power over the truth itself, and thus dominate the body politic

Is it really that big of a jump for a true believer to take matters into their own hands to demonstrate tribal or nationalist loyalty (possibly with the assumption of protected status)? Maybe…though just as or even more troubling are the bottom feeders who twist themselves in knots trying to claim they’re the real victims…victims in desperate need of vengeance.

She is accused of “playing on Trump’s field.” So what? Only a child believes that there is one field on which an election is contested. And, truth be told, the elite political press has a great deal to do in defining what the “field” of play actually is. It was the elite political press that helped establish the “field” of play in 2016, even though they’d rather pull out their own fingernails than admit it. The way you win an election is that you beat the opponent on his field, on your field, and on any neutral fields that pop up during the campaign.

It might be worth remembering the backstory, given that I doubt Elizabeth Warren ever thought she’d have to defend this or deal with it in the first place. If I recall, this was nonsense dug up by the Scott Brown campaign: Warren included a family story in a brief bio of the kind that colleges routinely publish in “who we are” promotional material. Unknown to her, Harvard University used this to cynically tout their own cause.

Brown’s smear was elaborated upon by the puke funnel, and topped off by Orange Narcissus’s particular short-fingered vulgarian touch…a smear that implied Warren, and by extension her family, were undeserving, opportunistic liars, unfairly attempting to claim quota status…which is exactly the sort of lie a media worth the name would immediately put an end to. Or, absent that, might at least note how reckless Brown et al were in describing their opponents as a “basket of deplorables”…wait, sorry…I meant undeserving liars getting free stuff that regular (i.e., white) folks can’t.

Oh, and that the Senator is, you know, a little girl.

As far as I’m concerned, Warren’s response is exactly what she should do: stand up to a bully, close the chapter, and move on. It’s also an excellent introduction of a good, even superb, candidate for high office.

But, as usual, the where-are-the-Republican-heroes cultists and their enablers will do everything they can to keep the playing field tilted rightward. Hence, the handwringing and head shaking. She wasn’t…sufficiently savvy, in their august judgment.

Republicans have also exploited their insulting thesis that #MeToo is really about lying or delusional women falsely accusing men, which they are trying to spin into a female lament about sons and husbands and fathers and brothers being the real victims.

A Republican lawmaker in Minnesota is under fire for snatching the microphone away from his Democratic rival during a debate.

…

The two had been passing a single microphone back and forth, sharing their thoughts on a wide variety of issues. However, as Mahlberg was answering a question about linking education funding to the Consumer Price Index, Quam raised a card indicating he would like a rebuttal. Instead of waiting for Mahlberg to pass him the mic, he seized it from her hands…After Quam was finished speaking, he tried to pass the mic back to Mahlberg, but she literally wasn’t having it. When she didn’t take the microphone from him, he tossed it in front of her.

The GOP is Trump, and he is the GOP.

Come to think of it, that’s probably been the case for some time. Maybe it hid behind cheerier or at least most respectable facades, but you can go back a generation and find the kind of hostility that’s DJT’s trademark. Plus, it’s not like Nixon (or Wallace) appealed to the better angels of our existence.

Because this is what it looks like. I keep repeating stuff, apologies, but because that’s what the midterms come down to: Donald Trump. This is his vision for the presidency (well, to the extent his handlers allow him to be president), this is his vision for the country. His base feels the same way. They few as features what we think are horrible, disqualifying flaws.

It sucks that we’ll have to overcome a significant and ongoing voter suppression effort on the part of the GOP (which helped get us to this to begin with), but, so it goes. Same with the gerrymandering. That’s just more proof that Trump is not an anomaly, but the purest expression of the party (and for shit’s sake can Democrats STOP rehabilitating previous GOP politicians like the two Bushes and Reagan? Republicans don’t laud FDR…).

Next month will tell us a lot about this country…here’s hoping what it tells us isn’t genuinely disturbing.

The mess itself is not over but the possibility of defeating the nomination died this morning when, predictably, the Senator from Arizona flaked out. There are a few holding out hope that Collins and Murkowski remain undecided but I am no longer among them. Absent a miracle, the confirmation fight is over.

There were several reports last night that a “gang of four” including the aforementioned GOPers and Joe Manchin plan to vote as a bloc. The first time I saw that I knew that Judge Bro would be promoted to Justice Bro. I feel sorry for the three women justices and even sorrier for the country.

Nothing that Judiciary Committee Democrats did or said yesterday mattered. The Senate has been fundamentally changed by Mitch McConnell, what the minority thinks no longer matters.

The fact that the American Bar Association wants an investigation does not matter either. Angry white men want one of their own on SCOTUS and they will get their wish.

The fact that Republicans applied criminal law standards of corroboration and reasonable doubt to what is really a job interview shows that they followed the Thomas-Hill playbook. The only difference was that Senators did not yell at Christine Blasey Ford. They let Brett Kavanaugh and Lindsey Graham do the yelling instead.

I’m feeling alternately angry and numb this morning. I put a lot into covering this story. I made the mistake of thinking that Senate Republicans would act like rational politicians looking at the next election. Instead, they put all their chips on promoting Judge Bro to the Supreme Court. The voters need to make them pay for their short-sighted thinking.

Even though yesterday’s hearing was as much Kabuki theatre as Kangaroo court, Michael F provided me with an alternate image. I hate to waste such generosity. Here’s the earless version:

Image by Michael F

The last word goes to Roy Orbison. We could all use some beauty in our lives right now even if it comes from a sad song.

UPDATE: As of 1:45 CST, Senators Flake and Murkowski are withholding an aye vote on the nomination unless there’s a one-week long FBI investigation. That’s my current understanding but the situation is FLUID and CONFUSING. It’s up to the White House to re-open the background check.

My earlier post illustrates the perils of instant analysis. Christine Blasey Ford (CBF) was such an outstanding witness that I let my guard down and became overly optimistic as to the fate of the Kavanaugh nomination. The situation remains fluid but committee GOPers regained their equilibrium after the second act.

It’s not that Kavanaugh was a good witness: he was not. He yelled and spent his testimony defending his resume, not his character. Initially, I thought his lack of judicial decorum meant that he expected to lose. It turned out that he was playing to an audience of one: a man with even less class than Kavanaugh exhibited today. Despite crying and refusing to blow his nose, Judge Bro seems to have held on to the president’s* support.

I’ve never seen a judicial nominee be rude to senators and act like an Insult Comedian Junior. Kavanaugh even insulted the personification of Minnesota nice; Senator Amy Klobuchar. Judge Bro realized he’d gone too far and apologized to her. Wise choice: she’s one of the best liked members of Senate on both sides of the aisle. I suspect Don McGahn pointed out that Klobuchar is fairly tight with Collins and Murkowski. The Alaska senator remains a possible no vote but I’m putting away my crystal ball. She will not be the only Republican to vote no, which only gets us to 50-50 with Pence holding the tiebreaker.

It was easy to see the belligerent drunk described by CBF and many others as Kavanaugh shouted his way through his testy tetchy testimony. Hardcore Trumpers loved his act and Republican solons seemed re-invigorated by all the nastiness. It’s hard to doze off when a red-faced bro is shouting at you, after all.

Other high points were watching Chuck Grassley lose his shit and Lindsey Graham pitch an epic hissy fit: Bless his heart. Since Republicans clearly regard women as dispensable, they dispensed with the services of prosecutor Rachel Mitchell during the second act without so much as a thank you.

Where do we stand now? Unfortunately, I think we find ourselves where we started the day despite the compelling testimony of CBF. Kavanaugh is damaged goods, but he *might* have the votes. Then, again he might not. I am no longer certain of the outcome. It depends on how Kavanaugh’s ranty testimony went over with the undecided Republican Senators. The ball is in their court: one of them, Ben Sasse, sounded like an aye vote during the hearing. I already covered Murkowski: she needs Republican company. As to Jeff Flake, his fine words rarely translates into action but anything can happen in this political environment.

I still think the political damage to Republican candidates caused by the hearing will be severe. In any other time and place, the Kavanaugh nomination would have been pulled. But we’re in the Trump era where the shameless run the show and the majority of GOP solons simply do not care about allegations of sexual assault. You cannot shame the shameless.

While it may be an insult to kangaroos to call this hearing a kangaroo court, I asked my friend and colleague Michael F to “help a brother out” with an image:

It’s been a Twilight Zone ever since the mainstream press spent the better part of two years ignoring his epic, wholesale corruption, the way too cozy relationship with Russian goons, the money laundering, the skinflint stiffing of contractors, the general sleaziness because, you know, her emails, Benghazi, Clinton Rules, etc., and especially, both sides.

It’s a Twilight Zone simply nominating a person like Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. I believe the women accusing him. However, even if they hadn’t come forward — at significant risk — Kavanaugh’s history shows him to be a thoroughly creepy individual, representative of the cesspool that…that nominated an equally sleazy figure like DJT. He and Trump are made for each other.

And…just another reminder that DJT’s cloddish, boorish, ignorant and embarrassing reactions to a significant natural disaster are a feature, not a bug. What anyone with a modest amount of, I don’t know, intelligence, maturity, empathy, whatever, finds appalling, MAGAs find appealing. The chronic, pathological lying, the gaslighting…the nomination of a total creep like Brett Kavanaugh (who’s clearly a liar and a scumbag, whether you think he’s also guilty of sexual assault or not)…it’s all baked in the (sheet) cake.

The midterm is a chance to reject the sort of cartoonish lunacy that considers an empty calorie summit with Kim Jong Un a great achievement…or to endorse it. What kind of country do we want?

First, hurricanes suck, period. Death, destruction, displacement…Even if your losses aren’t catastrophic, you have to deal with all sorts of headaches: power outages, the never-ending search for food, water, gasoline; any savings you had gets flushed away…so, no lie, I’d actually prefer Trump’s emergency response to be at least minimally competent. You don’t wish this disaster on anyone — and it will be a disaster, even as the storm is getting a bit, emphasis on a bit, less destructive.

But good god, if Trump thinks Puerto Rico was a success, that’s a bar set so low you need a back hoe to pull it out of the ground. No, it’s more typical Trump: compulsive lying with a sort of implied threat to do — what? bark/howl, call you a pathetic nickname? — if called on his obvious lie? What the hell was the assembled press doing when Trump lauded himself? Shouldn’t the reaction have been some sort of derisive grunt if not an actual exclamation along the lines of what-the-fuck, seriously, what-the-fuck? Trump lies because he’s a compulsive liar and because he thinks he can, because he does, and because there’s no push back. This isn’t politics/the librul media. It’s pointing out the goddamned obvious.

Do you think Obama could’ve gotten away with something so blatantly untruthful? Even Bush Junior’s heckuva job became a punchline.

But the media puts its collective head in the sand, or reacts with both sides/opinions differ. In the meantime…lets hope for the best along the Atlantic coast. As I said, if Trump’s response is minimally or even significantly competent, for whatever reason, I won’t complain, because it’s minimally human to not want this to happen to anyone.

Adrastos has it pretty much covered, just to add a few thoughts of my own, this whole sorry scenario was brought about in no small measure by a toxic political atmosphere and degree of journalistic malpractice that, for lack of a better term, both-sided to the extent Trump could barely eke out a win.

And that’s kind of the point and problem: Republicans get lauded with praise for, what? Pointing out the painfully obvious point that Donald Trump is an idiot and an asshole? Hell, Trump is merely the distilled essence of what’s been boiling in the GOP cauldron since at least the late 50s/early 60s, when movement wingers labeled Eisenhower a squish. Nixon was Trump with intellect. Reagan was Trump with veneer/Teflon (aided and abetted by an exceeding friendly press). Bush Junior was Trump with a twang. Palin? Trump’s John the Baptist.

Meanwhile, Democrats have for decades now been pretty much forced to apologize for being Democrats, even when they’re about as DLC as it gets (e.g., Hillary Clinton). Even as Obama bent over backwards to meet the GOP quite a bit more than halfway, the sensible people/conventional wisdom insisted he wasn’t going far enough (this despite the near disastrous Grand Bargain and his expressed willingness to trade tort reform for GOP support of the AEI/Romneycare inspired ACA).

Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley are hopeful signs that Democrats are tired of being told by conventional wisdom to be Republican-lite, particularly when it both gets us nowhere AND gives us Donald Trump…an administration so clearly rancid it requires desperate measures, and inspires anonymous excuse makers.

…but, the midterms are pretty much about him. This guy. CPOTUS. Couch Potato in Chief (via)

Cable television news hosts and commentators are among the first voices that Trump hears in the morning and the last he listens to at night. Now he is increasingly relying on those voices in making decisions — often running afoul of his actual advisers in the process.

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Stuart P. Stevens, a Republican political consultant and writer who was Mitt Romney’s senior strategist in the 2012 presidential election campaign, decried Trump’s reliance on the “insane feedback loop of Fox.”

“Here’s a guy who has access to the most sophisticated intelligence ever available, that cost billions to produce, that people have died for,” Stevens said. “And he’s relying for his information on something you can buy for like $2.98 a month with your cable subscription.”

One major risk for Trump is bad information — as illustrated in the recent flaps over South Africa and Google.

To be honest, part of me thinks this might be the best, or at least least worst, situation given the circumstances, i.e., Trump doesn’t do much more than flop down on his fat ass and watch TV. That’s probably a bit better than, I dunno, Trump getting up off his fat ass and doing pretty much anything. Also a good bit better than…President Pence.

But to ensure he doesn’t do much more than sit/lie on the couch and watch the box, it’s essential to send a strong message. A message that says no, we don’t like your policies, your attitude, that you managed to back door your way into the office…and we don’t much like you, period. Otherwise, the next two–or, god help us, six–years will be a good bit worse than the last two.

Whether recent events contribute directly to the end of Amateur Hour/The Apprentice POTUS Edition, they do keep it on the defensive…I think that’s a good thing (or is a wounded Trump a dangerous Trump? And, lord help us, what would a Pence presidency be like?)

[B]y pleading guilty Cohen has implicated the president in a conspiracy to commit federal crimes. Cohen admitted that Trump directed him to commit felonies, and in the ordinary course of things, Trump would be getting indicted. These crimes are more serious than lying about a sexual dalliance with a White House intern, although I’m not quite ready to say that, on their own, they amount to a high crime. As part of a larger case arguing for removal from office, these criminal acts should play a supporting rather than a leading role.

…the one thing Trump probably cannot survive even in a Republican-led Senate is confirmation that the Steele Dossier was correct about Cohen traveling to Prague. That is the most serious allegation in the entire Russia investigation.

Trump himself is swaying between his usual belligerent outbursts and milder criticisms…I also think we’ll see him making more speeches to the GOP base, which looks to be his comfort zone. This could be about as best as we can hope — if he’s on the defensive and/or delivering rambling, free association wingnut tripe to his adoring minions, it’s that much less time he has to destroy our country.

Elections have consequences. And that’s truer than ever for the upcoming midterms.

Having recently relocated myself, I can confirm it’s both a bit of work and a transition period getting used to the new surroundings. Paul probably had less to move… toothbrush, maybe a few personal effects. I read he also had a laptop. I wonder if he gets to keep that when he goes from jail to prison (probably not, but maybe he can buy a typewriter).

Other lobbyists sought out authoritarian clients, but none did so with the focused intensity of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. The firm would arrange for image-buffing interviews on American news programs; it would enlist allies in Congress to unleash money. Back home, it would help regimes acquire the whiff of democratic legitimacy that would bolster their standing in Washington.

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The firm’s client base grew to include dictatorial governments in Nigeria, Kenya, Zaire, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, among others. Manafort’s firm was a primary subject of scorn in a 1992 report issued by the Center for Public Integrity called “The Torturers’ Lobby.”

The firm’s international business accelerated when the Philippines became a client, in 1985. President Ferdinand Marcos desperately needed a patina of legitimacy: The 1983 assassination of the chief opposition leader, Benigno Aquino Jr., had imperiled U.S. congressional support for his regime. Marcos hired Manafort to lift his image; his wife, Imelda, personally delivered an initial payment of $60,000 to the firm while on a trip to the States. When Marcos called a snap election to prove his democratic bona fides in 1986, Manafort told Time, “What we’ve tried to do is make it more of a Chicago-style election and not Mexico’s.” The quip was honest, if unintentionally so.

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The firm’s most successful right-wing makeover was of the Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi, a Maoist turned anti-communist insurgent, whose army committed atrocities against children and conscripted women into sexual slavery. During the general’s 1986 trip to New York and Washington, Manafort and his associates created what one magazine called “Savimbi Chic.” Dressed in a Nehru suit, Savimbi was driven around in a stretch limousine and housed in the Waldorf-Astoria and the Grand Hotel, projecting an image of refinement. The firm had assiduously prepared him for the mission, sending him monthly reports on the political climate in Washington. According to The Washington Post, “He was meticulously coached on everything from how to answer his critics to how to compliment his patrons.” Savimbi emerged from his tour as a much-championed “freedom fighter.” When the neoconservative icon Jeane Kirkpatrick introduced Savimbi at the American Enterprise Institute, she declared that he was a “linguist, philosopher, poet, politician, warrior … one of the few authentic heroes of our time.”

Can only hope he goes from Savimbi chic to prison orange (or green, I guess, based on the mug shot) and stays there. Creep. And it’d be nice if fellow creep Roger Stone joined him.

In an article published Tuesday morning, Forbes’s Dan Alexander — who has become Ross’s central tormentor in the last few months — reported that, based on conversations he had with 21 people, Ross may have stolen more than $120 million from associates over the years, taking vast amounts of money from business partners and consistently scamming investors. “If even half of the accusations are legitimate,” the magazine writes, “the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.

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One of Ross’s former colleagues calls him a “pathological liar.”

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Unsurprisingly, Ross’s questionable ethical practices have continued during his White House tenure. As … Alexander … reported last June, Ross maintained holdings in foreign companies even while serving in government, exposing him to obvious conflicts of interest. One of these firms had major ties to a Russian oligarch who had been hit with American sanctions. Last November, Ross signed a form asserting that he had divested all the assets he had previously promised to, which turned out not to be true.

So there’s the Mueller investigation and the Manafort trial, both of which would in ordinary times and with a normal administration be crippling if not fatal. But the Trump crazy train/cult careens on, in no small part because the true believers might as well be in a cult. They seem to think Donald Trump…Donald fucking Trump…is some sort of divine intervention, which tells me more about their state of mind and what they consider ordained or divine. To which I can only reply…good lord.

So, fuck those folks. You’re not going to reason with them, they’re way beyond that, assuming they ever managed to get to reason to begin with. But…they’re not a majority, or I hope like hell not…and if they are, well, better that we know.

Anyway, just my .00002 cents worth, but forget those folks, and instead, focus on getting our base out…and if there are any undecideds (but how can anyone possibly be undecided in this age?), anyway, for anyone not sure, point out all the times Orange Narcissus has hardly been the alpha male he claims to be, but instead has groveled or otherwise displayed to the world how laughably obsequious he is towards not just Vlad Putin, but even dirtbags like Kim Jong Un.

And tie him to the whole damned Republican Party. Why not? They’ve tied themselves to him. Democratic opposition researchers should be ready to plaster every available media format with material that, over and over again, displays Trump as a toady weakling. That’s what he fears, that’s what he scared of. Being revealed as an ineffective — or worse, incompetent — idiot.

Even as Trump demonstrates how crazy and unsuited for office he is, the GOP doubles down on him because of his popularity with the base (what’s the line? something like Democrats despise their base, Republicans fear theirs?).

Almost every elected Republican we talk to privately thinks President Trump’s warm embrace of Vladimir Putin was unexplainable, unacceptable and un-American. Yes, they wish they could say this publicly. No, they won’t — not now, and probably never.

The cold, hard reason: They see no upside in speaking out — and fear political suicide if they do, numerous Republican officials tell us.

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Headed into a election that’s expected to favor Democrats, a top GOP Senate strategist says Republicans are counting on President Donald Trump’s media dominance to turn out their voters in November — and drown out opponents’ messaging…

“Everybody thinks that President Trump is some kind of drag on the Republican Party, [when] in this case, he’s just the essential ingredient,” said [Josh] Holmes, who’s helped engineer his party’s Senate strategy for the past 16 years as a chief aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

In other words, forget any appeal to better angels, compromise, reasonableness, whatever. DT’s done everything short of acting as Vladimir Putin’s personal footstool, but it’s not enough to shake the base, who cling to him…as strongly as they do to their guns and religion. Hell, Trump is pretty much their religion, and they fetishize him as much as they do their precious weapons.